Rev Charli Tupper

I’ve never thought of myself as a dancer. I can remember as a child trying to learn to dance. My sister was graceful and had rhythm. Me, I didn’t think I did. There are many ways that I judged myself harshly as a child that I am coming to understand as not completely true. This has been a habit that I am not fond of. It is a habit that limits my awareness of the power within me to dance with/in Spirit.
Every one of us is born with the perfect abilities and gifts to dance to the cosmic music that sings within our souls. This music is the life energy that flows through each of us individually, and as a humanity collectively. It is the music that awakens our hearts to those precious aha moments and our ability to let go of what is not serving us as we move to the music.
When I think of learning to dance, I know part of my problem was I always wanted to lead. You know, be in control. One of us would be trying to do one dance, and another trying to do something else. As I tried to force my partner to move the way I thought I wanted, we would trip, pull, fall, or just feel silly.
Learning to dance requires communicating with your partner and being in touch with the music. From a spiritual standpoint, learning the dance of our life requires communion with Spirit which aligns us with our self and all of life. Dancing requires listening. We must listen to the rhythm of the music. Listen so deeply we feel the tempo of this cosmic music within our soul. We allow the ornament of the piece to move our lives faster and slower; swaying left and right, back and forth. Moving with the cosmic music of our soul in this way allows us to experience all the energies of life. And, of course, there is also the moment when this music piece comes to an end. Can we hear the cadence and move within it?
Learning to move with/in the music of the soul is another way of learning to discern our purpose in life. Our purpose is more than what we want or do. It is more than the goals that we set that will help us achieve certain experiences. Our purpose is simple and yet profound. Why does it feel as if it is a secret buried deep within us that is not easily accessed? I believe this is because we have spent so much of our energy trying to dance someone else’s dance. We haven’t asked ourselves; what would bring me joy to express?
From early on in life we have been taught to listen to the voice of other. What do our parents, siblings, friends, teachers, grandparents, society, race, culture all think is appropriate for us to do. As a little girl, wanting to be a minister was out of the question. Women aren’t ministers! That was the cultural thought that held me back for years. There were other limiting beliefs that kept me from believing that I could listen to my own soul and dance my dance.
Through the practice of mediation; of quieting the mind and allowing ourselves to just be in the moment, we give spirit permission to reveal to us who we really are. We open ourselves to the music that is so powerful, it has no audible sound, and yet it changes everything. It is the vibrations from this music that every thought that is not in alignment with our truth is released. It is through this vibration that we release others expectations and live in a true state of freedom. This sounds like I am making it easy and yet I believe it is the greatest work we can do. It is through this art of listening and dancing that we discover and live from our purpose.